Some times

One time I was so into a television show that I forgot to turn the burner off when I removed my finished ramen noodle dinner from the stove (We were still students, and Ches was waiting tables that night, so naturally that was what I was eating). A potholder was touching the burner. The apartment was completely filled with smoke before it tore my attention away from the screen in order to prevent my fiery death.

One time I didn't notice a hole in my black tights until we were on our way out the door to church. I grabbed a sharpie and colored my skin underneath to hide it. I took the marker with me in case the tights shifted. They did. C still teases me for walking around with big black marker moles on the back of my legs for a couple of days.

One time I dropped my phone on my one month old child's face. Avoid being over-zealous about baby photos.

One time I had to throw up (morning sickness ruuuuules) at the school before my students arrived. Apparently my skirt was a little tight because the slit ripped all the way up to my mid-bum. I had to waddle back to the classroom clutching my behind while trying to stay slinked against the walls. I re-learned two things, I can arch my back really well, and safety pins are a good tool.

 

just today

I remembered that I once confused the words 'pubic' and 'cuticle'....horrifying. 

Don't ask me why.

Perhaps its the same reason I have to think for at lease 15 seconds before I can differentiate between Reese Witherspoon and Kate Hudson in my mind.

My husband might argue that it is probably related to the same brain disfunction that causes my lack of attraction for George Clooney. 

Why I can never say the word repricocity reciprocity correctly. So hard.

Not to mention this list of items. 

Do you know what is not hard? Looking at this face.

                           

Breaking the first rule of time.

My enviably lovely friend Lacy wrote a post today that I completely love, so I decided to take a shot at being as lovely as she is by copying her (form of flattery...right?). 

To my 16 year old self,

Don't feel so intimidated by those "attractive" boys in the grade above you. You think that they think that you are a nerdy loser (wordy much?), but they don't think of you at all. Which is a-okay.

Be a little more reliable. I know you want to see everyone and go to everything, but your friends are going to tease you for years about being the flaky one. But, they will also stick around forever.

Please don't wear those cut off tights beneath your knee length shorts because you are embarrassed of your legs. You will get tired of people asking if you are a burn patient. Also,your legs aren't nearly as ugly as you think they are.

Those overalls you think are cool, really are pretty cool, but get them in a long.

Don't be sad that you don't have a boyfriend. You have the best and sweetest guy friends in the world, and you will date later. You'll have a boyfriend next year for a little while, and it isn't nearly as fun. Enjoy the freedom of being close to so many wonderful people in an unattached way.

Make more time to talk with your girlfriends. You will wish you had worried more about them and less about yourself.

Enjoy the crap out of that music. You will never be immersed in it like that again, and you will ache for it. Go for more solo's and sing louder with the radio because your voice will be out of practice before you know it.

Don't let anyone dissuade you from wearing that purple choir robe in your school picture. It totally goes with the parrot ear rings.

Also, try not to go outside looking like this.

Who I Was Remembering

My Father's mother is an amazing woman. She is the lovely Judy Garland-esque lady on the left.

When I was young I thought she was kind of surly. She always made us really neat gifts, and would smile when we came, but she didn't have the warm fuzzy kind of personality that I was used to from my other grandma. But she loved us a lot.

As I grew up, and learned her story, I understood how it would have been difficult for her to come across any other way. She was stoic, not surly. Okay, maybe a tiny bit surly, but mostly stoic. She had to learn to be that way for her children.

Grandfather was in the military serving in Vietnam. Dad was 3 years old, his younger brother was 3 months old,and there were also three older children in the family.  One day grandpa went out on a reconnaissance mission, and never made it back to base. The plane just vanished. He and the other men with him were just gone.

My grandma Jeanie never heard from or about her husband again. She had just had a baby, had four other children, and was in her early thirties. She never remarried. She hoped for a really long time. It was possible that he could reappear. She was alone for over 40 years.

When I was old enough to understand this story, my heart broke for her. 

When we were cleaning up her house after she died I found one of the first editions of the military size Books of Mormon tucked away in a closet or drawer.  Weeks later the pages on the inside cover started to peel apart. I saw writing there, and finished separating them. Inside was a love letter she had written to my Grandfather before she had sent the book overseas. It had come back to her, and she had glued those pages shut, so she wouldn't have to see it, but so the book could still be used. 

I can't imagine that kind or degree of pain. She was an amazing woman. She raised five children on her own, and did a pretty darn good job. Even if she did throw rocks at them when they climbed trees to avoid well earned punishments. I think it is a parenting tactic I might adopt.

So, yesterday, I was remembering them. A grandfather who gave it all in the service of his country, and a grandmother who gave even more.

Proof of what? That Uncle Bob was a cute baby once...?

 Isn't she lovely?

Who were you remembering?